Top 5 Reasons Why Anti-Federalists Opposed
the Constitution's Plan for a Stronger National Government

1. A powerful national government would swallow up
(destroy) the states.

2. In a large country there would be too many different types
of people. They would always be fighting with one another.

3. Large numbers of people could not be well represented
in a small national legislature.

4. In a large country the national legislature would be far
away from most people and they would not be able to keep their
eyes on what the government is doing.

5. A powerful peacetime army would be needed to control the
people in a large country.

Top 5 Reasons Why Anti-Federalists
Opposed the Constitutional Plan for the House of Representatives

1. The number of votes each state got in the House was unequal
(based on population).

2. The large states would get so many votes that they would
control all of the laws passed.

3. The formula for determining how many votes each state
got (1 representative for every 30,000 people) would make
it impossible for the people's interests to be well represented.

4. Representatives would be elected for 2 year terms. Two
years was too long to wait to have the chance to remove ineffective
or corrupt lawmakers.

5. The Constitution did not give the House any power over
the making of treaties.

Top 7 Reasons Why Anti-Federalists
Opposed the Constitution's Plan for the United States Senate.

1. Large states were against the plan to give every state
two votes in the Senate. They argued that states with more
people should have more representatives.

2. Senators were to be elected by state legislatures. They
should be elected by the people.

3. Six year terms were too long.

4. There were no limits on the number of terms a Senator
could serve.

5. The Senate and the President would be partners in treaty
making and appointments. This destroyed plans to separate
the powers of government.

6. By letting the Vice-President break ties in the Senate,
this gave one state three votes instead of the two that every
other state got.

Top 7 Reasons Why Anti-Federalists
Opposed the Constitutional Plan for the Executive Branch

1. A single president would be just like having a monarchy
(i.e. king/queen).

2. The president would be elected by an electoral college.
He should be elected by the people.

3. Four years was too long to wait.

4. There were no limits on the number of terms a president
could serve.

5. The Constitution gave the president complete control over
the military. This would allow the president to use the army
to enforce bad laws and keep himself in power.

6. The Constitution gave the president too much power over
lawmaking by giving him the veto power.

7. The Constitution gave the president the dangerous power
to pardon. He could involve himself in corruption with others
and then pardon them.

Top 4 Reasons Why Anti-Federalists Opposed
the Constitution's Plan for the judiciary.

1. The Constitution threatened the jury system. It did not
guarantee a trial by jury in civil cases and allowed "matters
of fact" as well as matters of law to be argued in the
lower federal courts without juries.

2. A person might have to travel thousands of miles to have
their case heard in the Supreme Court.

3. As the interpreters of the ambiguous parts of the Constitution,
the federal judges could give the national government more
power at the expense of the states.

4. The importance of state courts would reduced as people
flocked to the federal courts to have their cases heard.

Top 5 Reasons Why Anti-Federalists
Opposed the Constitution.

1. There was no list of the people's rights.

2. The national government was given too much power.

3. The country was too big for the people to be represented
by one national government.

4. The Constitution was undemocratic (e.g. only one of the
4 parts of the federal government would be elected directly
by the people).

5. The Constitution would lead to a consolidation of the
states into one massive union.